PRO/CON VIEW: Should medical marijuana be legalized?

By Enterprise editorial staff

Published 4:00 am, Monday, March 17, 2014

OUR VIEW: It's time for change

Our story about a Port Acres man on Friday was sad, and typical: A desperately ill person turns to marijuana to ease symptoms or pain, and it works. More importantly, it works in ways that no other conventional drug can. Texas should join the growing number of states that permit the medical use of marijuana under controlled conditions with a doctor's prescription.

If that sounds like something you'd hear from a wild old hippie, it shouldn't. Recently the conservative Republican governor of Texas said the same thing. And when Rick Perry breached that previous forbidden topic, it barely raised a ripple statewide.

That reaction, or non-reaction, shows that more and more law-abiding citizens favor the medical use of marijuana for humanitarian reasons. The Legislature needs to realize this.

Meanwhile, police and prosecutors need to use more discretion in handling unfortunate cases like Port Acres resident Jeremy Bourque's.

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ANOTHER VIEW: Respect all laws

Cases like Jeremy Bourque's can be compelling - up to a point. The bottom line in a law-abiding society is that individual citizens don't get to pick and choose which laws they will obey. By the same token, police and prosecutors should not pick and choose which laws they will enforce. If it's on the books, it should be supported.

Some people think they can drive OK with a blood-alcohol content beyond 0.08 percent. Some people think they can drive safely at 95 mph. If people like that were allowed to bend the rules, civil society would soon degenerate into chaos.

Moreover, every state that has legalized medical marijuana has seen undeserving people exploit that change to smoke pot by using excuses like anxiety or phantom pain. And it isn't hard for them to find a doctor who will issue prescriptions for those dodges.

Don't like a law? Then lobby the Legislature to change it. Until then, obey it.

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